Become a technology creator!

Microsoft Imagine introduces the Break Into Code challenge as a beginner level challenge that will get you excited about coding even if you don’t have any previous experience. We’ve teamed up with Microsoft Research’s TouchDevelop to get students of all ages started with a simple, easy to follow tutorial on coding a brick breaker game. The tutorial will get you started from a blank slate to a working game which you can then personalize and reinvent to make it your own. You can use any device with a browser and internet connection to participate.

Put your coding skills to the test. In cooperation with Microsoft Research, Imagine Cup brings you the ultimate challenge: write effective and elegant code, in real-time, in competition with thousands of other student programmers.

In the Code Hunt Challenge, you'll be shown a snippet of code, and you'll have to rewrite it to produce the desired output in as few lines of code as possible. The puzzles start easy but quickly escalate in difficulty. Can you solve them all?

The winner of each month's Challenge is the student who produces the best possible answers in the shortest time. The Challenge lasts just 48 hours, and the first student to get the highest score will receive a $1000 prize! Additionally, the top scoring participants will receive digital certificates recognizing their achievement as Code Hunt Finalists.

And every student who participates will be entered into our Grand Prize drawing, where one student will be chosen at random to win a $5000 prize!

The sixth Code Hunt Challenge begins on April 18th at 12:01 AM (GMT), and ends on April 19th at 11:59 PM (GMT). Even when there's no Challenge happening, though, you can still visit www.codehunt.com and practice your skills to get ready for the big event.

Play to win. Today, great games come from anywhere and people play them everywhere. On their phones, on their computers, on their tablets, in their browser, with their friends, with anyone, with everyone. Powerful game engines and libraries are available for free so students can get started right away. There’s really never been a better time to make the next great game.

We’ve seen amazing games come out of nowhere in the last few years. Many of them have been made by students around the world. Have you got an idea? Then get a team, make a plan, and make it happen!

The Imagine Cup Games Competition is a global contest for the best new student games and the winning team will take home $50,000 (US). Create a desktop or tablet game using Windows, or a mobile game using Windows Phone, or a browser game using Windows Azure and you could win big at the Imagine Cup World Finals in Seattle 2015.

Break the rules. Incredible, world-changing software innovations often come from students. Social networks, music services, digital photography apps, gadgets and robotics – the list goes on. We’re looking for the next big thing and we know students like you are going to make it.

This competition is the doorway to your success. If you can win here, you can go anywhere. If you’ve got a great idea, assemble a great team and work hard to bring that idea to life. Your project could be on devices all over the world, changing lives and giving people the thrill of seeing the future come to life right in front of them.

The Imagine Cup Innovation Competition is a global contest for the best new innovative software and the winning team will take home $50,000 (US). Create a desktop or tablet project using Windows, or a mobile project using Windows Phone, or a browser project using Windows Azure and you could win big at the Imagine Cup World Finals in Seattle 2015.

Are you dreaming of the next great technology innovation? Got an idea for a video game you just can’t stop thinking about? Have you looked at a global problem in the news and thought you had a solution?

Then set up a camera and start talking! Young software developers around the world are asked every year to pitch their project to investors, partners, customers, publishers, and even potential teammates. It’s how you share your vision, how you persuade people that you don’t just have the right idea. You’re also the right person to make it happen.

In this Imagine Cup global online challenge, record a video no longer than three minutes in which you and your team pitch your project. You, in front of a camera, telling your story, in any of our three competition paths: Games, Innovation, or World Citizenship.

Games: Have you been dreaming of the world's most amazing game? Give us your concept! Pitch the game as though we're a game publisher. What's new? What's your game's market? What games is it like? Give us the 'elevator pitch' summary and get us as excited as you are!

Innovation: Maybe you have an idea that will shake things up. Pretend we're a group of investors. Why is your idea new? What's ground-breaking about it? How will it make money? What's the long-term plan, and what are your next steps to bring it to market?

World Citizenship: You want to change the world. Tell us about it! What's the problem you want to solve? What other solutions are out there? Who needs your solution, and why? Show us how well you understand the problem you want to tackle!

The winning team in each category will receive $3,000 (US). Ten runners-up in each category will receive a certificate of achievement and an exclusive Imagine Cup lapel pin to show the world you’re among the best.

These could be the most important three minutes of your life. Make them awesome!

Don't start coding without a map. You've got a great idea for a software project. But don't start coding yet – first, take the time for a deep dive and build a project blueprint. Who will your users be? What are your top features? And finally, how will you get your project to market and make enough money for you to support it?

All these questions can be answered in your project blueprint. This is a five-to-ten page document where you start your journey into the Software Development Life Cycle. Once you put this together, you'll have a road map for your project that you can share with team members, faculty advisors, and other people who can help you get where you're going. You can use text, images, flowcharts, diagrams, and whatever else you need to tell your story. Choose one of our three competition paths: Games, Innovation, or World Citizenship.

Games: You've got a great game idea, but it's just talk without a Game Design Document. Get hands-on with the details of your game -- the story, the systems, and the overall gameplay. Make a plan of attack that will carry you through to a finished, polished game.

Innovation: Before you can take your idea to market, you need to know what your market is. Do the research, identify your users and their needs, solicit feedback, analyze the costs and projected revenue, and develop a plan to make your product a reality.

World Citizenship: If you want to change the world, you have to know what needs changing. For every problem, there's a mountain of research, studies, analysis, and data. It's time to dive into that data and come out with an argument for your proposed solution.

The winning team in each category will receive $3,000 (US). Nine runners-up in each category will receive a certificate of achievement and an exclusive Imagine Cup lapel pin to show the world you're among the best. A total of thirty teams will win!

It's all too easy for a team to jump in and start coding before they're ready. Your project blueprint is how you can get your whole team set up for success. Get started!

Between the user and your code lies your user experience. What's the first thing that happens the first time a user launches your software? What about the next five minutes? The next hour? Can they use your software easily or is it too confusing? Can they find what they need? And how well can you utilize the user experience guidelines for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 in our new world of touch-centric devices?

For this challenge, your team will create three documents:

For the Games competition, a set of Storyboards that walk through the intended gameplay and game experience.

For the World Citizenship and Innovation competitions, a hero scenario user flow diagram showing how your user will experience the most important functionality of your project.

An information architecture diagram showing how the core menu screens of your project connect to each other and what key user tasks are accomplished on each screen. If your project is a game, this diagram should cover the front end menus screens of your game as well as major screens accessible during gameplay such as a pause or options screen.

Two low-fidelity wireframes demonstrating two sample screens from your project, both of which should also appear in your information architecture diagram. If your project is a game, one wireframe should be from your front end menus and one should represent your core gameplay and in-game UI.

One high-fidelity visual target image showing an important screen from your wireframes, created at production quality. If your project is a game, this visual target should visualize your core gameplay.

Creating these documents will help you better plan your project and ensure you are not overlooking important features, while also giving you a clear visual target for your whole project to live up to.

Choose one of our three competition categories: Games, Innovation, or World Citizenship. The winning team in each category will receive $3,000 (US). Ten runners-up in each category will receive a certificate of achievement and an exclusive Imagine Cup lapel pin to show the world you're among the best.

UX is the secret sauce that elevates everything you do with your project. Do it right, make it great, and unlock your project's full potential!

Change the world. Since Imagine Cup started in 2003, students all over the world have teamed up to make the world a better place. By creating impressive new technology projects in fields such as health, education, and the environment these students have shown the world new ways to think and to change. You can be next.

Find a problem in the world, even in your own life or community, that affects many people, and then work to solve it. Build a project that could change lives – and change your own in the process, because the team you assemble to bring this vision to life will learn more and challenge themselves more than any of you can yet imagine. Become the change you want to see in the world.

The Imagine Cup World Citizenship Competition is a global contest for the best new software to address social issues and the winning team will take home $50,000 (US). Create a desktop or tablet project using Windows, or a mobile project using Windows Phone, or a browser project using Windows Azure and you could win big at the Imagine Cup World Finals in Seattle 2014.

AppCampus is a global mobile application development program led by Aalto University, Finland. Funded by Microsoft and Aalto University, the AppCampus program has been set up to foster the creation of innovative mobile applications for the Windows and Windows Phone ecosystem. Within AppCampus, mobile entrepreneurs can benefit not just from award funding, but also comprehensive coaching, go-to-market support, training in mobile technology, design and usability to create innovative new mobile apps and services.

All Imagine Cup worldwide finalist teams with a Windows Phone project are eligible to apply for these awards. Two teams will be awarded with a €20,000 AppCampus award that is distributed according to the AppCampus program rules.

Ever wished email could do more for you or a calendar appointment could be more dynamic? When you’re writing documents or building spreadsheets, is there something that could help you to present data in a different way or check your document for correct references ? If you create a presentation for a class, was there something missing that would have really made it shine?

You have the power to make that all come true. Build a web app in common languages such as HTML, JavaScript, PHP, or .NET and you can publish it to the Apps for Office Store where it can be purchased by hundreds of millions of users.

Apps for Office is a platform for developers to create cloud-hosted web apps that work inside Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, and SharePoint. These apps work seamlessly within the installed, desktop versions of Office 2013 and in the Office 365 cloud apps, adding new features, tools, and content to the software used by millions worldwide.

Work Directly With the Microsoft Office Team

The Apps for Office Challenge is how you get started. Teams of up to four students worldwide are invited to submit short written proposals for their idea by January 23. The Microsoft Office team will pick the best proposals and then work directly with those teams as they develop their web apps. You’ll have access to specialists right in the heart of Microsoft who will review your work and point you in the right direction. Imagine your next job interview when you tell them how you partnered with Microsoft!

From those shortlisted teams, two World Finalist teams will win a trip to Seattle in July, 2014, to compete in the Imagine Cup World Finals. These teams will meet the Microsoft Office experts they’ve been working with and compete on stage for first and second-place prizes of $5,000 and $3,000 – and of course, you’ll get your app published in the Apps for Office Store.

How to Get Started

Ready to change your life? Ready to take a shot at teaming up with Microsoft Office to build amazing web apps? Then it’s time to get started:

Code. With Friends. You can reach more people and keep them more engaged with your app by integrating Facebook! Use Facebook Login in your project as a sign-in option and enable users to bring the identity they've cultivated on Facebook to your app. Query the Facebook Graph API to tailor your app experience to the user's preferences, Likes, and other information. Post to the Facebook Open Graph and gain distribution when people's friends see the stories they've shared from your app.

All World Finalist teams using Facebook Login are invited to apply for this award and one winner will be selected from all entries based on the quality, creativity, and effectiveness of their integration with Facebook.

Grand Prize

The winner will receive $25,000 in Facebook Advertising Credits to help you drive even greater distribution of your application.

World Finalist teams can sign up for this contest once we announce the list of all World Finalists in early June. The submission deadline will be July 21st, just before the start of our Imagine Cup World Finals in Seattle.

Last Year’s Winner

At the Imagine Cup 2013 World Finals, Team AYNI from Ecuador won the Facebook Creativity Award. They are launching their app shortly and you can watch a video trailer for their project or watch a full demo now! Congratulations to Team AYNI and best of luck to all our World Finals teams competing for this year’s award.

Join the global game revolution. Today, great games come from anywhere and people play them everywhere. On their phones, on their computers, on their tablets, in their browser, with their friends, with anyone, with everyone. Powerful game engines and libraries are available for free so students can get started right away. There’s really never been a better time to make the next great game.

We’ve seen amazing games come out of nowhere in the last few years. Many of them have been made by students around the world. Have you got an idea? Then get a team, make a plan, and make it happen!

The Imagine Cup Games Competition is a global contest for the best new student games and the winning team will take home $50,000 (US). Create a desktop or tablet game using Windows, or a mobile game using Windows Phone, or a browser game using Windows Azure and you could win big at the Imagine Cup World Finals in Seattle 2014.

Game on!

PAX Boot Camp

Launched in 2004, PAX has grown from a fan festival for gamer webcomic Penny Arcade into three events on two continents: the world’s premier celebrations of all things gaming. Imagine Cup will bring the winning student team from our Games category to PAX Prime in Seattle over the last weekend of August, 2014. They’ll spend all four days at the festival demoing their game to PAX Prime attendees, gaining unbeatable exposure and hands-on feedback from the most dedicated gamers in the world.

But their experience starts even sooner: this student team will also attend PAX Dev, the two-day game developer conference in Seattle that takes place immediately before the start of the PAX Prime. At this industry-only conference featuring many of the industry’s finest game designers, programmers, and artists, the team will attend learning sessions and meet their peers from around the world.

Visual Studio Online Boost

Visual Studio Online offers the cutting edge of online development services including source code controls, project tracking tools, hosted builds, cloud load testing, and team collaboration, all available anywhere you go. In 2014, all Imagine Cup World Semifinalist Games teams will be eligible for the Visual Studio Online Boost in which three teams in each competition will win $1,000 for using Visual Studio Online in their Imagine Cup project.

The next big thing could come from you. Incredible, world-changing software innovations often come from students. Social networks, music services, digital photography apps, gadgets and robotics – the list goes on. We’re looking for the next big thing and we know students like you are going to make it.

This competition is the doorway to your success. If you can win here, you can go anywhere. If you’ve got a great idea, assemble a great team and work hard to bring that idea to life. Your project could be on devices all over the world, changing lives and giving people the thrill of seeing the future come to life right in front of them.

The Imagine Cup Innovation Competition is a global contest for the best new innovative software and the winning team will take home $50,000 (US). Create a desktop or tablet project using Windows, or a mobile project using Windows Phone, or a browser project using Windows Azure and you could win big at the Imagine Cup World Finals in Seattle 2014.

Go for it!

Microsoft Ventures Boot Camp

We will send the winning team in this category to either London, Berlin, or Tel Aviv to spend four weeks in a Microsoft Ventures accelerator program. This team of students will have co-working space at the accelerator; coaching by our staff including a Microsoft Ventures Accelerator Director and a technical lead; and participation in a variety of accelerator activities that will help these students move forward towards launching their project in the market. We’ll schedule this experience for anytime in the twelve months following Imagine Cup World Finals so the students can work around their academic calendar, and of course travel and lodging expenses are covered.

Visual Studio Online Boost

Visual Studio Online offers the cutting edge of online development services including source code controls, project tracking tools, hosted builds, cloud load testing, and team collaboration, all available anywhere you go. In 2014, all Imagine Cup World Semifinalist Innovation teams will be eligible for the Visual Studio Online Boost in which three teams in each competition will win $1,000 for using Visual Studio Online in their Imagine Cup project.

In September we asked students to dream up their next great Imagine Cup project and pitch it to us in a short video. We received submissions from around the world – including 30 from Sri Lanka! – and our judges have chosen our winners:

World Citizenship: Team Symbiote (Ireland)

Nyx is a Kinect-powered Windows game designed for patients with Multiple Sclerosis or Muscular Dystrophy. Using motions based on actual physical-therapy techniques, patients play a series of manipulation puzzles designed to retain and improve their physical mobility and control. For pitching us this promising concept to aid people suffering from these diseases, we are very proud to award Team Symbiote from Ireland the first prize of $3,000 in the World Citizenship category.

Watch Video >

Games: Team Sticky Bits (Romania)

Grimacizer is a terrific concept: a game you play on your Windows Phone by making outrageous faces at the camera! Using facial-recognition software, Grimacizer challenges players to replicate the crazy faces they see on screen with their own face – and to test their friends to see if they can make better faces faster. For pitching us this ingenious blend of creativity, expression, and technology, we are very proud to award Team Sticky Bits from Romania the first prize of $3,000 in the Games category.

Watch Video >

Innovation: Team Mote Labs (United States)

Flinger.co is a clever solution for playing any web or video content you want onto the Smart TV of your choice. Team Mote Labs competed in the United States Imagine Cup National Finals in 2013 with an earlier version of this project. Based on what they learned about the power of Windows Azure and other technologies, Mote Labs re-envisioned their project and have taken it further than ever before. For pitching us this promising consumer media app, we are very proud to award Team Mote Labs from the United States the first prize of $3,000 in the Innovation category.

Watch Video >

In addition to these first-place winners, nine more teams in each category were selected for Honorable Mention. All 30 teams will receive feedback on their projects from the judges to help them take their work forward and make it even better. For the complete list of winning teams, please visit our Pitch Video Challenge Winners page.

You're going someplace new. Make your own map. You've got a great idea for a software project. But don't start coding yet – first, take the time for a deep dive and build a project blueprint. Who will your users be? What are your top features? And finally, how will you get your project to market and make enough money for you to support it?

All these questions can be answered in your project blueprint. This is a five-to-ten page document where you start your journey into the Software Development Life Cycle. Once you put this together, you'll have a road map for your project that you can share with team members, faculty advisors, and other people who can help you get where you're going.

You can use text, images, flowcharts, diagrams, and whatever else you need to tell your story. Choose one of our three competition categories: Games, Innovation, or World Citizenship. The winning team in each category will receive $3,000 (US). Nine runners-up in each category will receive a certificate of achievement and an exclusive Imagine Cup lapel pin to show the world you're among the best. A total of thirty teams will win!

It's all too easy for a team to jump in and start coding before they're ready. Your project blueprint is how you can get your whole team set up for success. Get started!

How to Get Started

Take a look at our Getting Started guide for step-by-step instructions that will take you through the whole registration process.

Get The Template

Project Blueprint Challenge entries are required to use the Project Blueprint template. Before you get to work on your entry, download the template and read it over!

Submit Your Blueprint

Ready to submit your project to the judges? Click the 'Submissions' link below the competition's name on your Team Page to get started!

Send It Off

Click the 'Select' button to choose your project file from your hard drive. The Project Blueprint Challenge submissions must be in DOC, DOCX or PDF formats and must be no larger than 20MB. If you need to, you can compress your document as a ZIP file before submitting it. And remember: Project Blueprint submissions must be based on the Project Blueprint template.

Now tell us your project's name, and don't forget to specify the category you're submitting it under – Innovation, Games, or World Citizenship – and you're all set! Your project is off to be reviewed by the Imagine Cup judges!

What is a Project Blueprint?

A lot of work and thought goes into a great Imagine Cup project even if you don't include the actual coding. You need to consider your potential users, your concept, core technologies, business models, and much more.

We've created the Project Blueprint Challenge so you can assemble a first draft of all that thinking in one place. By the time you're done with this document, you'll have done the right thinking and research to make your project the best it can be.

We have created a template for your Project Blueprint which you may download and use. (Get it here!) Fill out this template, up to ten pages long, and submit it on our website to enter the contest.

Resources

Take a look at the Project Blueprint template. You may see some concepts you aren't familiar with. No problem! The links below will help you learn what you need to know and do a great job with your team's Project Blueprint.

At the core of Skype is a belief that useful, universal, wonderful technology like Skype can be used in a variety of ways to make life better. We know from our hundreds of millions of Skype users around the world that they are already using it in countless innovative ways every day to help others. Some examples include the 80,000 teachers using Skype to inspire their students or non-profits like Imerman’s Angels using Skype to provide peer support for those facing cancer. The Skype Awards are meant to tap into that innovative and creative spirit to amongst the Imagine Cup community to deliver new ideas on how to leverage Skype to have a positive social impact.

Our Skype for Good program is all about leveraging technology and innovating to overcome societal challenges and have a positive impact in the world. A great example is our low-bandwidth version of Skype created for the United Nations Refugee Agency. The alignment between Imagine Cup and Skype could not be more natural. We are excited to see the innovative new uses of Skype that come from the Imagine Cup contestants. These are the first Imagine Cup Skype Awards, but we hope that they will lead to concepts that can be explored further and implemented in order to have a real impact in the world.

Prizes & Categories

Every Imagine Cup 2014 World Semifinalist student will receive a $50 Skype credit voucher! In addition, three World Semifinalist teams will be chosen to receive $5,000 for recording the best Skype video message explaining how they could use Skype to do great things in the world. One team will win in each of three categories:

Innovate and Collaborate as a Team: Skype is for doing things together whenever you’re apart. Tell us how you and your team used Skype to work better together during Imagine Cup or how you used Skype technology to conduct research, interact with stakeholders, or any other use of Skype to improve your results. If you did not use Skype this year, how could you image using Skype going forward? During your prototyping and pilot process, could you use Skype video messages to gather insights from end users? What other innovative ideas do you have to leverage Skype for increased collaboration and improved results?

Drive Social Impact through Social Innovation: If your project focuses on overcoming humanitarian, healthcare, isolation, environmental or other societal issues, what new innovative ways could Skype be used? There are no limits here, share with us your ideas for new Skype applications or functionality that will help your social impact initiative reach scale.

Learning / Education:Skype is being used in a variety of ways in traditional and non-traditional education environments around the world every day. You can get some ideas of how by looking through both our Skype in the classroom program and the School in the Cloud initiative led by TED Prize winner Sugata Mitra. Let us know how you think Skype can help transform and enhance education.

World Semifinalist teams can sign up for this contest now. The submission deadline is 23:59 GMT May 20, 2014. Winners will be announced when we announce the World Finalist teams, but you don’t have to be chosen as a World Finalist team to win this award.

Step 1: Add Imagine Cup Contact

From the Skype application, click Contacts, and select 'Add Contact' and then 'Search Skype Directory'.

Enter 'imagine.cup' in the search field, and select the Imagine Cup contact.

Step 2: Record and Send Your Video

Right click on the Imagine Cup logo, and select 'Send Video Message'.

Click the round Record button to begin recording your video message. When you're finished, click the Record button again to stop your recording.

Click the Send button to send your video message to Imagine Cup!

Step 3: Tell Us Your Username

Log in to your Imagine Cup Dashboard and submit for the Skype Award there. All you have to do is fill out the submission form including your Skype username. This ensures we can connect your video with your team.

Build a Sports Analytics app that will excite fans, coaches, and players. Win the challenge and get cash and a trip to Seattle to meet the 2014 Superbowl XLVIII Champions Seattle Seahawks!

Sign up by May 15 and be entered to win an AthleTECH water bottle autographed by Calvin “MEGATRON” Johnson! See official rules.

The US Imagine Cup AthleTECH Sports Analytics App Challenge encourages US students to create a software application based on the growing field of data analysis by focusing on sports analytics. Use raw sports game data and transform it into a useful and powerful Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, or .NET Web application that will benefit and inspire fans, players, or coaches by bringing new light to the analysis of the sport.

Between the user and your code lies your user experience. What's the first thing that happens the first time a user launches your software? What about the next five minutes? The next hour? Can they use your software easily or is it too confusing? Can they find what they need? And how well can you utilize the user experience guidelines for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 in our new world of touch-centric devices?

For this challenge, your team will create three documents:

A hero scenario user flow diagram showing how your user will experience the most important functionality of your project.

An information architecture diagram showing how the core menu screens of your project connect to each other and what key user tasks are accomplished on each screen. If your project is a game, this diagram should cover the front end menus screens of your game as well as major screens accessible during gameplay such as a pause or options screen.

Two low-fidelity wireframes demonstrating two sample screens from your project, both of which should also appear in your information architecture diagram. If your project is a game, one wireframe should be from your front end menus and one should represent your core gameplay and in-game UI.

One high-fidelity visual target image showing an important screen from your wireframes, created at production quality. If your project is a game, this visual target should visualize your core gameplay.

Creating these documents will help you better plan your project and ensure you are not overlooking important features, while also giving you a clear visual target for your whole project to live up to.

Choose one of our three competition categories: Games, Innovation, or World Citizenship. The winning team in each category will receive $3,000 (US). Ten runners-up in each category will receive a certificate of achievement and an exclusive Imagine Cup lapel pin to show the world you're among the best.

UX is the secret sauce that elevates everything you do with your project. Do it right, make it great, and unlock your project's full potential!

How to Get Started

Take a look at our Getting Started guide for step-by-step instructions that will take you through the whole registration process.

How to Submit Your Project

Ready to submit your project to the judges? Click the 'Submission' link next to the competition on your Team Page to get started!

Remember that in order to submit your project, you'll need to have checked both the Registered and Competing checkboxes. You also are required to assign at least one of your team members to the competition, by clicking the 'Assign Roles' link. Once you've done all that, you'll be able to click the 'Submission' link.

Project Title and Description

Give your project a short, memorable title and a brief description: what your project does, who it's intended for, and how it will work.

Uploads

The User Experience Challenge asks for four different documents. You have your choice of a variety of image and presentation formats; choose the one that you're most comfortable with. To upload each of the required files, click 'Select' to choose a file, and then click 'Upload' to send it off to us.

When you use Visual Studio Online you’ve got in-browser access to the latest Microsoft technologies for source code control, agile planning, application analytics, and much more. These are critical tools for developers that hiring managers want to see on your resume and Visual Studio Online is the best way to use those tools right from the cloud, anywhere you go.

Every 2014 World Semifinalist team is eligible to win the Visual Studio Online Boost. When you’re accepted as a World Semifinalist, you’ll automatically be entered in this contest. We’ll ask you to take a screenshot of your Visual Studio Online setup to demonstrate how you’re using these powerful tools at their very best.

Nine World Semfinalist teams will each win $1,000 for using Visual Studio Online and those winners will be announced and featured on our World Semifinals livestream in June 2014!

How to Get Started

Install Visual Studio Professional 2013 and set it up with your Microsoft Account – the same one you use to login here at the Imagine Cup website

Sign up for Visual Studio Online at no cost. Use the same Microsoft Account that you just used when installing Visual Studio Professional 2013. While you’re there, you’ll also get your own personalized account URL at VisualStudio.com!

Watch our videos showing how an academic team gets started using the powerful features of Visual Studio Online.

Windows & Windows Phone Challenge

Windows and Windows Phone apps are better together. Connected through the cloud with Windows Azure, they enable seamless experiences from PC to laptop to tablet to phone. Developing an app for both platforms is within reach for any student developer and gives you great experience with connected software and cross-platform development.

But apps aren’t developed in a vacuum. In the real world, development teams with customers, whether internal or external, to deliver the right solutions to solve the biggest problems. In this contest we want you to get out there and find someone in your community to partner with. It could be a family business, a restaurant, a new startup, an artist or musician you know, or a charity working to make a difference. Use your networks, find someone to partner with, and make your case: you’ll develop a set of Windows & Windows Phone apps that meet their needs and both of you come out ahead.

Working with your partner, figure out the problems they have that apps could solve. If it’s a nightclub, maybe they need an app that publishes their calendar of live performances. If it’s an artist, a digital portfolio they can easily update and share could help their career. If it’s a homeless shelter, maybe they need an app to alert volunteers of opportunities to help. If it’s a restaurant, maybe an app that has their menu and a link to make reservations.

This is a great opportunity for you to think beyond technology. Consider finding a team member or associate from your school’s business program who wants to get some real-world experience, working alongside your dev team to collaborate in your community and demonstrate impact.

We’re looking for student teams who are already thinking past graduation, past the next class, and who are ready to take a big step into their future. If you succeed at this contest, you’ll have an amazing story to tell when you start interviewing for jobs. Your talent, your passion, your technology, your community: with Windows & Windows Phone, they’re all better together.

Prizes

One team will win a trip to Seattle to be honored at the Imagine Cup World Finals in July, 2014. That team will receive $5,000 and every team member will get a Windows Phone 8. Best of all, they'll spend time with the actual Windows & Windows Phone team on campus at Microsoft to review the winning project and get expert feedback on where to take it next.

How to Get Started

Take a look at our Getting Started guide for step-by-step instructions that will take you through the whole registration process.

How to Submit Your Project

Ready to submit your project to the judges? Click the 'Submission' link next to the competition on your Team Page to get started!

Store Links

You'll need to provide two links: one to the Windows 8 app store for the Windows 8 app portion of your project, and one to the Windows Phone app store for the Windows Phone portion of your project. Publishing your apps is not just a good idea; it's required!

Proposal

Your proposal is a short document or slideshow that explains your project, its purpose, and talks about your community partnership. Your proposal file should be no larger than 50MB, and if necessary you can compress it into a zip file for submission. Click the 'Select' button to pick the file you want to upload, and then click 'Upload' to send it to us.

App Installers

Remember that you're building two apps for this challenge! Submit each one separately. They should be no larger than 500MB, and you can compress them into zip archives to submit them. Don't forget to sign your Windows 8 app!

Where everyone sees problems, you can find solutions. Since Imagine Cup started in 2003, students all over the world have teamed up to make the world a better place. By creating impressive new technology projects in fields such as health, education, and the environment these students have shown the world new ways to think and to change. You can be next.

Find a problem in the world, even in your own life or community, that affects many people, and then work to solve it. Build a project that could change lives – and change your own in the process, because the team you assemble to bring this vision to life will learn more and challenge themselves more than any of you can yet imagine. Become the change you want to see in the world.

The Imagine Cup World Citizenship Competition is a global contest for the best new software to address social issues and the winning team will take home $50,000 (US). Create a desktop or tablet project using Windows, or a mobile project using Windows Phone, or a browser project using Windows Azure and you could win big at the Imagine Cup World Finals in Seattle 2014.

The world is waiting!

Microsoft YouthSpark Boot Camp

As part of the global Microsoft YouthSpark initiative to offer education, entrepreneurship and employability opportunities for young people, we will bring the winning team in the World Citizenship category directly to Microsoft global headquarters for a week of intensive sessions curated specifically for the team and their project. With consultation and mentoring from Microsoft engineers, business development professionals, and marketing staff – as well as networking with venture-capital resources – YouthSpark will give this team of students the guidance and insight they need to move their social-good project forward.

Visual Studio Online Boost

Visual Studio Online offers the cutting edge of online development services including source code controls, project tracking tools, hosted builds, cloud load testing, and team collaboration, all available anywhere you go. In 2014, all Imagine Cup World Semifinalist World Citizenship teams will be eligible for the Visual Studio Online Boost in which three teams in each competition will win $1,000 for using Visual Studio Online in their Imagine Cup project.